If you'd like to turn to Psalm 23,
tonight we'll be looking at verse 1.
Jesus likened our relationship to him as that
of a shepherd and sheep.
So tonight what we're going to look at
is that peculiar relationship that takes place between
a shepherd and his sheep.
And as we do so, as we see
how a real live shepherd takes care of
his sheep, you're going to see the analogies
there between you and your relationship with Jesus
Christ.
You'll notice in this psalm that there is
not one petition, not one petition.
Many of David's psalms, he's coming before God
and he's repenting for sin or he's crying
out in anguish from a trial and just
calling out on God.
But in this psalm, there is not one
petition.
It is line after line of David listing
for us the many blessings that we have
as the children of God and how he
works in our lives as the great shepherd.
The Lord's Supper is a time for us
to gather together and to break bread together
and be reminded of all that God has
done for us.
And as I said, Psalm 23 outlines so
much of what God does for us, what
the Lord does as our father and as
our shepherd in leading us and taking care
of us and feeding us and the whole
thing that he does.
And I think that it's really important for
us as Christians to take time out.
We do it once a month.
I encourage you to do it more, to
take time out just to think about who
your Savior is, what your relationship is with
him and what he has done for you.
And that is the benefit of tonight's study,
just to still our hearts and meditate on
who our great shepherd is and how he
works with us as his children.
Now, by way of introduction to this psalm,
you may want to notice that in Psalm
22, we have the picture painted for us
of our Redeemer.
You may have never seen this before, but
then in Psalm 23, we have the picture
painted of the reigning king and his glory
after Jesus returns at his second coming.
So sandwiched right in the middle, we have
the picture of the great shepherd patiently, tenderly
tending his sheep and taking care of them
right now.
And that's us.
So we have in Psalm 22, the Redeemer
and the sacrifice.
And then in Psalm 23, we have the
great shepherd.
And then in Psalm 24, we have the
great king.
So we have the past sacrifice, enabling the
present blessing, ensuring then the future glory.
So I thought you might want to know
that because of the, it's just an interesting
way that the Lord has positioned this psalm
in here.
And one other important thing that is God
has made available for us the tender, full,
complete care of Jesus as our great shepherd.
But you cannot, as a human being, come
under that special, abundant care unless you meet
the Redeemer who is outlined in Psalm 22.
You cannot come under the great shepherd as
the shepherd of your soul until you meet
him as Redeemer.
So that's something to keep in mind.
Now, tonight, we're going to look at the
relationship of the shepherd and his sheep.
And I want to look at just basically
two things.
The first is the intimate relationship that takes
place between a shepherd and his sheep.
And the second thing is the care that
he shows for his sheep in special times
of need.
Because it's important for you and I to
understand and have really, in constant remembrance, the
intimacy that God desires with you and I.
Not only that, but the intimacy that is
going on on his level.
We wander and drift.
He never does.
He's always intimate with us.
We're not always intimate with him.
So it's good to call to remembrance how
intimate he desires to be with us because
it gives us confidence to approach him.
And it's also good to call to remembrance
the care that he has for us in
times of need.
And that keys up in our hearts and
on our minds, the care he has shown
in the past, which gives us the confidence
that he will show us that same care
today and in the future.
And so David said, the Lord is my
shepherd I shall not want.
And I believe that what he was saying
was I shall not want now and I
shall not want in the future.
Because now I have his ever-present care,
his provision.
Seek first the kingdom of God and everything
will be added unto you, Jesus said.
And in the future I will be with
him in heaven.
And the Lord knows we will never want
for anything there.
So I shall not want now and in
the future.
The Lord is my shepherd.
Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse
25, we were all like sheep going astray,
but we have now returned to the shepherd
and bishop of our souls.
The word for shepherd in Hebrew is ra
'ah.
And it means literally to tend a flock,
to make friendship with, and to keep company
with.
To tend a flock, make friendship with, and
keep company with.
That's shepherd.
But Peter said he's also the bishop of
our souls.
And he linked the two together.
And the word for bishop is episkopos.
And it's the Greek word meaning to look
or to watch over.
And I like to put the two literal
renderings together there.
Comes up with this.
He keeps company with us as his friends
and he tends us as his flock and
he's constantly watching over us.
Isn't that beautiful?
Jesus said, I no longer call you servants,
but now I call you my friends.
And the Bible tells us that the thoughts
that the Lord has toward you and I
are more than the grains of sand in
the sea.
That's how many thoughts he's thinking toward you
as the great shepherd of your life.
And so he's constantly overseeing the affairs of
your spirit and your soul as his child.
Not only that, desiring your companionship.
How's your companionship with the Lord tonight?
He earnestly desires that companionship, not just to
have you be saved.
He longs for that fellowship with you.
See, God created you for companionship with him.
That's one of the chief aims of your
whole life.
So now I'd like to look at the
intimate relationship just quickly that goes on between
the shepherd and his sheep.
And this is not a detailed look.
It's just a few things to remind us.
And then I'd like to look at the
caring for the sheep in the special times
of need.
You may know some of this and you
may not, but it's just delightful stuff to
look at and to think about.
In John chapter 10, Jesus said, the shepherd
calls his own sheep by name.
He calls his own sheep by name.
The way shepherds do this is they'll look
at the characteristics of their sheep and they'll
decide upon a name for them by their
characteristics.
For instance, you might have a striped sheep
and the shepherd seeing that striped guy go
back and forth now and then will come
up with a real neat name for him
like striper.
Or he might have a black one and
call him black.
Or he might have one that's a little
gray around the ears and called him gray
ears.
And we have a few of those with
us in our midst.
If I was to let my beard grow
out, I have some gray right in here.
That's why I don't grow it.
But you could be called gray eared.
And so by the characteristics of the sheep,
he comes up with names for them.
And I think that's interesting because Jesus did
this.
Jesus called himself the good shepherd.
He said, I am the good shepherd.
And he did this, which was typical of
a shepherd.
He said to John and his brother, he
gave them new names.
Remember what he called them?
The sons of thunder.
We always think of John because he's known
as the apostle of love, as being this
slightly effeminate character, you know, with his sleeves
just a little rolled up and walking daintily
and saying, just love one another, you know,
and everything's beautiful and wonderful and you're all
in God's family.
But Jesus called him the son of thunder.
And it's John and his brother who said,
Lord, with that one city said, let's call
down fire from heaven on these guys.
They're not repenting.
John was a tough, burly character, fisherman, able
to drag in nets.
You know, he was a strong individual.
So Jesus, seeing this characteristic, this feistiness in
John, called him the son of thunder.
I wonder what he calls you tonight.
Another characteristic of the intimacy is Jesus said
that the sheep hear the shepherd's voice.
They know his voice.
One time there was three shepherds crowding around
this well with all of their sheep.
There was just hundreds of them.
And some guys came up from over here.
This was over in the Orient.
And they said, how in the world are
you going to tell the difference between your
sheep and your sheep and your sheep when
this is all over and separate all these
guys?
I mean, they're just lapping up all this
water.
But how are you going to separate them
all out?
And one of the shepherds said, it's no
problem at all.
Watch this.
And so he kind of stepped off to
the side and he he yelled out an
Aramaic word like Mina or something like that,
whatever the word was.
And all the sheep that belonged to him
just ran to him.
They knew his voice.
Jesus said, my sheep know my voice.
And you know, what's what is so beautiful
about that is that sheep by nature have
poor eyesight, but they can hear really well.
And so by knowing the voice of their
shepherd, that's how they are able to go
from one pastor to the next, you see,
and go through all the dangerous conditions in
getting there.
They rely heavily on the voice of their
master.
And you and I are like sheep.
We can't see very far ahead, can we?
We try, but we can't.
We don't know what tomorrow will bring for
us.
We don't know what next year will bring
for us.
We don't even know what the rest of
the night is going to bring for us.
And so we have to rely on Jesus
and his guiding voice to guide us into
what lies ahead.
We don't know.
We can't see ahead.
So we don't even know the decisions that
we need to make.
So through listening to that still small voice
of our great shepherd, we then know the
steps to take as he leads us in
the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
And we'll study that more in depth in
the coming weeks as we get to that
verse.
But the sign of intimacy is that his
sheep know his voice.
If you're his child tonight, you know his
voice.
You know when God is speaking to you.
Another thing is that, I like this, the
shepherd will play with the sheep.
In other words, as they're out there watching
the sheep, now and then life gets a
little dull, you know, just sitting around tending
the sheep.
And if nothing's going on, things are getting
a little mundane and the shepherd is getting
a little playful and feisty, he'll jump up
and he'll call them all and he'll run
off and get their attention and then he'll
run off.
And they'll all panic and think, oh no,
our shepherd's leaving us.
Sheep innately know their dependence on their shepherd
because he takes care of them for everything.
And as they see him running off, they
think, he's leaving us.
We'll all die.
And they all start chasing after him.
And once they catch up with him, they
crowd around him and they're all licking each
other and they get all happy and they're
licking him because they caught up with him
and they're in that secureness, that safety with
their shepherd again.
And so the shepherd, when he's born, he'll
play with them.
Now, you and I, God doesn't really play
with us, but something similar happens.
And that is that we think he's run
off and left us when he hasn't, right?
We come to the point where we'll say,
oh, there's a few things going wrong in
my life.
I think God's forsaken me.
He must have run off and forgot to
call me to go with him or something.
And he's left my life.
But you see, as our good shepherd, Jesus
said, I will never, ever leave you or
forsake you.
That's in Hebrews 13, verse 5.
So the intimacy that goes on between he
and us is that constant abiding with us
as he oversees our spirits and our souls
and our lives.
And then there's the intimate knowledge that the
shepherd has of the sheep.
As I said earlier, how he's thinking so
many thoughts towards you every minute, every second.
One fellow who was one of these real
mathematical individuals figured that more than the grains
in the sands of the sea would have
to be something like eight octillion thoughts towards
you every minute.
Eight octillion thoughts.
I don't know how much that is.
I just know it's a lot.
But the shepherd, a good shepherd will know
his sheep so intimately that you can't believe
it.
I mean, it's just fascinating the way this
can happen.
When H.R.P. Dickinson visited the desert
Arabs, he witnessed an event that revealed the
amazing knowledge which some shepherds have.
One evening, shortly after dark, an Arab shepherd
began to call out one by one the
names of the mother sheep and was then
able to pick out each one's little lamb
and restore it to its mother.
To do this in the light would be
a great feat for many shepherds, but this
was done in complete darkness and in the
midst of all of the noise coming from
the ewes crying for their lambs and the
lambs crying for their mothers.
But you know, no oriental shepherd ever has
known their sheep as intimately as Jesus Christ
knows you tonight.
Isn't that beautiful?
No shepherd has ever known his flock the
way Jesus knows us tonight.
He said, I am the good shepherd and
I know my sheep.
We think we come to the Lord so
many times and we're telling God what he
needs to do for us, as if he
doesn't know us, as if he doesn't know
how to give us the best.
And so we're rattling off all these things
God should be doing for us.
And especially if we feel that he's not
doing what he should be doing for us.
But Jesus knows you more intimately than you
know yourself.
And he's working the plan for your life
according to that knowledge.
That's how he's working with you as his
little lamb.
And then there's the difference between the shepherd
and the hireling.
The hireling, when a shepherd would get so
many sheep that he couldn't handle them himself...
See, because the shepherd leads the sheep.
He doesn't get behind them and drive them.
He leads them.
So when he would get more sheep than
he could possibly handle, then he'd hire somebody
to help him.
But because the sheep did not belong to
this fellow who had been hired, if an
animal came to attack or a robber came
to attack, the hireling would just take off.
If a lion came, because there was lions
in the area in the days of David,
he fought with a lion and taking care
of the sheep.
There was bears.
There aren't either lion or bears in that
area anymore.
There's wolves and things like that.
But if one of those came, the hireling
would just take off.
Because he wouldn't have that personal care.
But the true shepherd would risk his life
for the sheep.
Would risk his life for the sheep.
And you know, just to make a quick
transition, in the church today, you have, as
the pastors being shepherds, you've got good shepherds
and you have hirelings.
And the hirelings are the ones who are
out for the money.
And they fleece the flock of God so
that whenever they're preaching or ministering, they'll always
hammer away for that plea for money.
Because it's not a personal interest in the
sheep, in the flock of God that's motivating
them.
It's the dollar.
And that's the difference between a hireling and
a real good shepherd in the church today.
But Jesus is not a hireling.
He said the hireling will desert the sheep.
And he said, I'll never leave you and
I'll never forsake you.
So he calls the sheep by his own
name.
They'll never leave us or forsake us.
We know his voice.
He has that intimate knowledge with us.
And you know what?
He knows you so well that he knows
where you're going to run off to when
you wander off.
Did you ever wonder why he's so quick
to catch you when you wander from him?
Why he's so quick to find you and
shine his light on you in your times
of drifting?
It's because he knows you so well.
He knows where you're going to run off
to.
But that's comforting.
That's comforting because we need him to bring
us back, don't we?
We'll talk about that in a minute.
Now, caring for the sheep in special times
of need.
I really like this.
It shows the tenderness and the love the
Lord has for us.
When the time comes where sheep are about
to give birth to their little baby lambs,
those sheep must be kept close to the
shepherd for protection because he needs to work
very carefully with them as they go from
one pasture to the next.
But then there's always those little baby lambs
that, as they're moving from one place to
the next, have a hard time keeping up
with the rest of the flock.
And if they lag behind, they'll be picked
off by a wolf.
So you know what the shepherd does?
The shepherd over in the Orient wears an
undergarment, which is sort of like linen, and
an outer garment, which in the days of
David was like camel hair.
And that's what John the Baptist had.
And he'd use it as a blanket by
night and just as protection.
So what the shepherd will do is he'll
take that little lamb, or if there's a
couple of them, that can't keep up with
the rest of the flock, and he'll open
up his outer garment and tuck that little
lamb right in there, under his arm, maybe
one right in over here, and he'll actually
carry them as they move from place to
place.
Isn't that neat?
Because you know what the Bible says?
The Bible says in Isaiah 40, he shall
feed his flock like a shepherd.
He shall gather the lambs with his arm
and carry them in his bosom.
And he shall gently lead those that are
with young.
I'll tell you, God really sees us as
his sheep.
There's a lot to be learned about our
relationship by studying this relationship between a shepherd
and his sheep.
Now here is one of the most important
things of all, and that is that a
shepherd will seek and find the lost sheep.
When one wanders off, he will seek and
find them.
And you know, usually you know where they'll
find the sheep.
They'll find them in some ravine where there's
no water, or they'll find them in some
canyon where there's no grass to eat.
Someplace, in other words, where they'll perish.
That's where the shepherd usually finds the lost
sheep, someplace where they will perish.
And so he'll leave all the rest and
go find them there.
And this is so glorious.
Then he'll take them, and you've probably seen
this in pictures or in movies, and he'll
put them up over his shoulders and carry
them on his big, strong, sturdy shoulders back
to the rest of the flock.
You ever felt like God has found you
way out there and carried you back to
the flock?
I'd like to read to you something that
reminds me of that.
Footprints.
You ever seen that little poem, Footprints?
Let me refresh you.
It goes like this.
One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach
with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For in each scene he noticed two sets
of footprints in the sand.
One belonged to him and the other to
the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed
before him, he looked back at the footprints
in the sand, and he noticed that many
times along the path of his life there
was only one set of footprints.
He also noticed it happened at the lowest
and saddest times of his life.
This really bothered him, and he questioned the
Lord about it.
Lord, you said that once I decided to
follow you, you'd walk with me all the
way, but I have noticed that in the
most troublesome times in my life there was
only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you
most you would leave me.
The Lord replied, oh my precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never leave
you.
During those times of trial and suffering when
you see only one set of footprints, it
was then that I carried you.
Isn't that beautiful?
And you know what?
You know when it is when he most
has to carry us, and you know when
the times of suffering and sadness are heaviest
many times?
It's when we've wandered, right?
There are times of sadness that come just
by way of the Lord allowing us to
go through hard times to strengthen us, but
by and large and in a general sense
the saddest most troublesome times are when we've
wandered.
And so for the most part in our
lives when we experience that gracious carrying of
the Lord is when we've been the most
unfaithful to him.
And he comes and finds us and puts
us on his big old heavy strong shoulders,
and he carries us back to where we
belong in the straight and narrow so that
he can more effectually minister to us and
bring us back into that place of blessing.
And so when we wander off he goes
and finds us and he carries us back
on his big shoulders just like the good
shepherd.
And then the last thing I want to
identify is that a good shepherd will protect
his flock from wild animals, and I mentioned
this was the difference between a good shepherd.
I heard about a Syrian shepherd who a
hyena came and drug off one of his
little sheep, and so this shepherd took his
staff, and the shepherds over there have slings.
That's why David had a sling, and they
use it as a weapon where they'll throw
rocks through their sling.
And he took his staff and his sling
and he hunted down this hyena who had
taken his lamb.
He followed him all the way to the
den where he lived, his little cave in
the side of the mountain or whatever.
And there he began to rant and rave
and scream and make all these wild noises,
you know like a hyena makes, until the
hyena came out of this cave.
And then he started just slinging the rocks
at that hyena as fast as he could
go, just bombing that guy with these rocks,
until he just sort of got over out
of the way, and they started beating him
with that staff until he was able to
get his little sheep back from him and
take him back.
But you know that was a dangerous task,
and it cost him, it cost him to
go risk his life like that, to get
that little sheep back from that dangerous animal.
And you know Amos, in the book of
Amos, it tells in chapter 3 verse 12
of a shepherd trying to take his little
lamb back out of the mouth of a
lion.
Have you ever read that?
It says, as the shepherd takes out of
the mouth of the lion two legs or
a piece of an ear, sounds like he
got there too late, that just describes the
whole scene of the shepherd fighting with a
lion to get his little sheep back.
But you know what that does for me,
that verse, it reminds me of something.
It reminds me that the Bible tells us
Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.
And Jesus as our good shepherd found us
in the jaws of that roaring lion, didn't
he?
Before Christ found you, where were you?
You were bound in the bondage of sin,
hopelessly bound.
You were led about by the devil, wherever
he wanted to take you, whatever he wanted
you to think about, you thought about.
Because Jesus said, if God isn't your father,
the devil's your father.
He was the master and the Lord of
your life, and he was dragging you in
his powerful jaws right into hell with him.
And Jesus came as the good shepherd, not
just risking his life to take you out
of the mouths of that roaring lion.
As the good shepherd, he gave his life.
It cost him his life to get you
out of the jaws of the devil.
The Bible says that he came to destroy
the works of the devil, but it cost
him his life to do it.
You know, Spurgeon said that sometimes they had
to pay a very high price for certain
sheep.
Really valuable ones.
You know, you're so valuable that God paid
the highest price for you as a sheep
that was ever paid for a sheep in
the history of the world.
He had to pay for you, ransom you
back from the devil with the blood of
his only son and with the broken body
of his only son.
I'd like to just close with a quote
from a little girl in Sunday school.
You know, Jesus said sometimes out of the
mouth of babes is perfected praise.
One time in Sunday school, the teacher said
to this little girl, she said, I want
you to quote for me the first verse
of Psalm 23.
And the little girl said, the Lord is
my shepherd and that's all I want.
She got it confused.
But you know what?
If Jesus is really your shepherd, that is
all you want.
The last part of the verse there is
I shall not want.
And we didn't really talk about that because
the whole rest of the Psalm explains what
he means by that.
The whole rest of the Psalm, every verse.
So we'll be explaining that in weeks to
come.
But if Jesus is your shepherd tonight, you
have no want because he is your portion
and he is satisfying your soul.
And you're not looking to this world for
satisfaction.
You're looking to him to draw closer to
him and to his great shepherding care that
he has for you.
Psalm 23 speaks of the blessings of coming
under the guidance of the good shepherd, of
our Lord Jesus.
And you see, that's the guidance and that's
the care and that's the shepherding that God
has intended for us from the very beginning,
when he created man and put him on
the earth.
Tonight, we're looking at the verse that says,
he makes me to lie down in green
pastures.
And this speaks of the security and the
contentment that we are to have as believers,
as God's sheep, of being well fed and
well cared for, and not having the fear
of anything around us, but knowing that we
are under the constant care of our good
shepherd.
You know, what I want to do is
look at the requirements that sheep have in
order to be able to rest and feel
secure enough to actually lay down.
You see, it's almost impossible to get a
sheep to lay down unless there's four basic
requirements that are met.
Did you know that?
Sheep are a funny little lot of animals.
And they've got all kinds of funny little
fears.
And unless everything is taken care of for
them and they feel secure, they will not
lay down.
So let's look at these.
The first one is that they must be
free of all fear in general, free of
all fear.
The second thing is they must be free
from all friction with others, all of their
fellow sheep.
The third thing is they must be free
from pests, little bugs and things that bother
them.
And the fourth thing is they must be
free from hunger.
Now, the first one then, free from all
fear.
Sheep naturally have no means of self-defense.
They have absolutely no means of self-defense.
They are utterly dependent upon their shepherd to
take care of them.
They are so timid and so shy and
so fearful by nature that even a little
jackrabbit can scare a whole flock of sheep.
And the reason this happens is because all
it takes is one little jackrabbit to dart
out of the bushes and one sheep sees
it, he panics and the rest of the
sheep follow.
And the reason that happens is because they
don't bother to look around and see what
it was that panicked the original sheep that
took off.
Sheep have a mob rule mindset.
They just follow the leader.
And we're kind of like that too, aren't
we?
One time there was Philip Keller who wrote
the book the 23rd Psalm, was watching his
sheep and his car drove up.
A friend had come to visit him.
And the friend jumps out of the car,
you know, saying hi and everything.
And all of a sudden, this little tiny
Pekingese, remember those little dogs, Pekingese?
This little tiny Pekingese puppy, puppy, they're only
this big when they're full grown, puppy, probably
could fit in a coffee cup, jumps out
of the car and one of the sheep
sees it and just panics.
And what happened was all 200 of the
sheep took off running and just fled in
complete terror from a Pekingese puppy.
That just gives you an idea of how
easily panicked sheep are.
Now, just how defenseless are sheep?
I think it's illustrated by the fact that
two dogs, two dogs, two wild stray dogs
have been known to come in amongst the
flock in a night when the shepherd wasn't
watching and slaughter as many as 292 sheep.
Two dogs.
Does that show you how defenseless they are?
Now, Jesus said that we need to beware
of wolves in sheep's clothing.
And I have seen that all it takes
is for one or two dogs or wolves
to come into the flock of God.
And there's always those who aren't under the
care of the good shepherd that are susceptible
to the wolves in sheep's clothing.
And all it takes is one wolf, one
or two wolf, wild dog to come in
and you can't believe how many sheep can
be slaughtered and devoured in such a short
time.
Many times we see churches split and divided
and good Christian people that were living just
a little too far out from underneath the
care of the shepherd are deceived and taken
away and devoured by the enemy.
That's because unless you're under the care of
the good shepherd, you're defenseless.
So we need to be very careful to
be under the care of our good shepherd,
Jesus Christ.
Now, the interesting thing is, is that with
all of these enemies around that they have,
when they're tending sheep, wild dogs, wolves, bears,
and all these kinds of things, the sheep
know that if they can see their shepherd,
if his presence is there with them, they
will be at peace.
And their fears that they have naturally will
subside and not be there.
And so it is with us.
When you're under the care and the love
and the guidance and the provision of the
good shepherd, when the Holy Spirit is confirming
his presence in your life, all of your
fears just sort of drift out of your
life.
Isn't that true?
Some of us are more fearful by nature
than others.
Some of us are more paranoid by nature
than others.
But the good shepherd, when he takes control
of your life, begins to manifest his lordship
to you, just dispels all of your fears.
And that's why it tells us in Timothy
that God hasn't given us the spirit of
fear, but of love and of power and
of a sound mind.
And so the first thing needs to be
taken care of, then, for the sheep to
begin to relax so that they can lay
down as their fears have to be taken
away.
You don't have to worry about a wild
dog or a wolf in sheep's clothing coming
into the church and deceiving you if you're
under the care of the good shepherd.
But I'll tell you, I've seen it many,
many times where Christians are living on the
outer edge of Christianity, and I've seen so
many get deceived and follow after false doctrines
and false prophets and false teachers.
You do need to worry about that if
you're not living close to God, but if
you are, you don't, because he will provide
for you and he will open your eyes
to these kinds of attacks.
Now, the second thing is that they need
to be free from friction with others.
You know, sheep have a funny tendency.
They have a tendency to want to have
this one-upmanship.
In other words, there's always one old you
within the crowd that wants to be the
leader.
It somehow gets it into their head that
they are the ones who should be in
charge.
And so what they do is they have
what's called a budding system, and when they
come to some good grass or good pasture
or nice watering site, they want to be
the first one there, and they want everybody
else to know that they're the ones who
are in charge, they're the ones who are
the strongest.
And so as the other ones come along
that are aggressive, they just butt all of
them back and back and back and back
until everything's clear and they can go up
and everybody can stand around and see, wow,
this one is the strong, heavy sheep.
Does it sound familiar?
The budding system?
What the funny thing is, is when the
shepherd walks up onto the scene, they stop.
Now, if they don't stop, if this one
sheep that wants the preeminence doesn't stop, the
shepherd takes his rod and starts whacking that
guy around.
Sound familiar?
You see, many times in the church when
we have those that aren't walking under the
care and the guidance and the lordship of
Jesus Christ, somehow their pride will gain the
throne.
And there amongst the flock of God, they
will decide that they need to have the
preeminence, that they need to bless everybody by
letting them know how special they are and
how they're just natural leaders called of God.
One time in a church I was in,
there was a brother who said, nobody around
here knows it yet, but I am a
pastor.
And I said, oh really?
He said, yeah, nobody knows it, nobody has
recognized this, but God told me.
And it's only a matter of time until
he manifests my anointing and my authority to
all of them.
The budding system, wanting the preeminence.
You know, when this happens, I think there's
three things that take place that are very
similar to what happens with sheep.
Number one, it makes everybody else around uncomfortable,
doesn't it?
Somehow when everyone's fellowshipping after church and you
see this brother over there just trying to
toot his own horn and gain a little
following, you just sense something's not right there
in the spirit.
And it makes everybody uncomfortable.
And if it happens on a continuous basis,
pretty soon everyone's uncomfortable.
It can even happen with the pastor.
If the pastor is trying to steal all
the glory from God, the flock will become
uncomfortable.
And so we see that as human beings
within our flock, the flock of God, there
is the tendency to practice the budding system.
You see, it's so contrary to Jesus and
everything that Jesus was and said and stood
for, isn't it?
Jesus made himself of no reputation, but took
upon the form of a servant.
He said, if you'll follow and be like
me, then you'll be a servant too.
And you won't seek to have the praise
of men, but rather the praise of God.
The Bible tells us in Corinthians that when
we compare ourselves amongst ourselves, it's unwise.
And yet how we fall into that trap.
But again, it's the presence of the shepherd
that stops this kind of behavior.
And if you've ever fallen into this, you
will have found that when he began to
quicken his presence to your heart, as this
was going on, and you didn't respond, you
began to feel the rod of God come
down upon you.
You see, he is God and he wants
all the glory.
It's as we said last Sunday, he created
us to be transmitters of his glory, not
our own.
And so whenever any one of us begin
to practice the budding system, you can be
sure that the rod of God is not
far off.
So you do well to be guided by
his eye and by his presence and to
repent of such a thing before the rod
comes down.
I'd rather not have to deal with the
rod of God.
I'd rather just be guided by his eye.
Now, the next thing is that sheep, then,
in order to be able to be peaceful
and feel comfortable and secure to lay down,
they have to be free of pests.
Now, many times we find in the church
what I call pests.
Sometimes you've got people that come in and
it seems that they've got no desire to
serve God.
They have no desire to serve the brother,
no desire to love the brother, no desire
to love God or his word, and all
they do is bother people.
Year in, year out, month in, month out,
week in, week out, service after service.
And finally, we have to get to the
point where we pray them out, because they're
just pesting the flock of God.
It seems like they've got nothing better to
do.
And also, many times, they're the ones that
practice the budding system more than anybody else.
And it's sad to see that go on,
but God is always faithful in the end
to get rid of these little bugs, these
little pests.
But I think that in a more beautiful
sense, we get to see the Holy Spirit
in our lives.
Remember last week we studied how the Holy
Spirit makes intercession for us?
Basically, what we studied was how he teaches
us to pray.
Just in passing, I said that in general,
he intercedes on our behalf in our walks
with God constantly.
The pests would come under the category of
the constant intercession of the Holy Spirit.
You see, the things that sheep have to
deal with are nasal flies, bot flies, warble
flies, and ticks.
And we encounter little things like this in
our everyday life, don't we?
At work, at play, at home.
Little things that come up during the day
that just bug us.
Perhaps a personality conflict at work.
That person across the room from you, and
that other desk, or across the partition, or
down the hall.
The one that somehow, some way, almost every
day, you have to come in contact with,
and they just seem to rub you the
wrong way.
You can come whistling into work down the
hall, humming, you know, Great is Thy Faithfulness,
and all of a sudden here they come.
Lord, couldn't you have had me get here
just two minutes earlier?
Just to avoid this person.
And there the Holy Spirit, if you're walking
in the care and guidance of the Good
Shepherd, the Holy Spirit will be there to
smooth that friction out, to place the love
there in your heart that you don't naturally
have, and relieve that little pesty situation that's
really bugging you.
Isn't that neat?
I love that, because you know what, I
didn't have that before I was a Christian.
Before I was a Christian, those things really
got to me.
Let's face it, how many people have you
talked to that say, Pray for me, I
want another job, because there's a pesty situation
at work.
This guy's really bugging me, or this lady's
driving me crazy.
Or how many times have you prayed, Lord,
get me out of this situation.
The Holy Spirit is there for us as
Christians to make that intercession for us, and
we never know why he has us on
a certain job.
I can't tell you how many times on
different jobs I've had where I said, Lord,
why am I here?
Get me out of here.
Obviously, this is an oversight.
Obviously, this is a mistake.
Evidently, you know, you were concentrating on someone
else's life when I applied for this job.
And when I said, Lord, if this isn't
you, slam the doors.
And then you just forgot.
You didn't even notice what was going on.
Lord, have I got your attention?
Get me out of here.
I can't tell you how many times I've
done that, prayed that, experienced that, only to
find that somebody at that job will come
to Christ, just because I was there walking
with the Lord.
Then I understand.
And in the meantime, when I stop begging
for deliverance from a situation that God has
ordained that I be in, I find that
intercession of the Holy Spirit to see me
through those little pesky, buggy situations that really
tick you off.
Now, finally, this requires the constant care of
the Holy Spirit, and that's what God gives
to us as the Good Shepherd.
But the final thing is that the sheep
need to be well-fed before they can
lay down.
They have to be well-fed.
Otherwise, they're nervous, and they're just sort of
standing around and just pacing back and forth,
looking for some more food to eat.
There's two kinds of pasture.
There's the lush green type, and then there's
the rocky barren type.
Now, it takes a good, dedicated shepherd to
constantly be looking for green pasture for his
sheep.
While the sheep are feeding, he's got to
be going ahead to higher ground or on
to another area to find another pasture, because
once they've eaten all the grass in this
one, they've got to go on to another
one.
Now, the lazy shepherd will just let his
sheep sort of wander around the rocky barren
pasture, and his sheep will be ill-fed.
We find that in the church.
Men who don't bother to spend any time
in the Word of God, and as a
result, they don't feed their flocks.
It's a lot of work to not give
the same message every week.
It really is.
But the Good Shepherd's constantly looking for greener
pastures, and we see this with our Lord.
While he's got us in these lush green
pastures over here, he's planning out something for
the future to bless us, some future place
of blessing and care and rest and security
for us.
Sometimes, in order to provide, if the shepherd's
going to be with his flock in a
permanent situation, he will clear off a rocky,
barren stretch of land and have to plow
it up and plant good, lush grass in
order to adequately feed his sheep, and that's
a lot of work.
But you see, a Good Shepherd is constantly
at work, constantly with his sheep on his
mind and their provision and their satisfaction and
contentment, and that's how our Lord is with
us.
It's not unusual if you have lush, green
pasture for a newborn sheep to grow at
the rate of one pound a day, so
that in one hundred days from birth, he
weighs one hundred pounds.
Have you ever noticed those newborn babes in
Christ that really come under the Lordship of
Jesus, really give their hearts to the Lord,
really are careful to spend that time feeding
in his Word?
They seem to grow at the rate of
at least a spiritual pound a day, and
within a couple of months, they're just fat
and spiritual and filled with the fruits of
the Holy Spirit.
I love that.
I love to be around that, because that
just excites me to make sure I'm in
that first love relationship with the Lord.
But then on the other hand, you have
those that seem to come to Christ, and
a hundred days later, they're scrawny-looking, they're
nervous, they can't look you in the eye,
they haven't touched their Bible the whole time,
they've just gone from place to place, and
they're ill-fed.
Have you ever seen that difference?
The Lord would have all of us to
come under his lush feeding as he guides
us into the greener pastures by his Holy
Spirit.
Philip Keller said an interesting thing.
He said, A hungry, ill-fed sheep is
ever on its feet, on the move, searching
for another scanty mouthful of forage to try
to satisfy his gnawing hunger.
Such sheep are not contented, and they don't
thrive, and they are no good to themselves
or to their owners, and their languish and
lack of vigor and vitality is very evident
within them.
He went on to say, Because of our
own perverseness, we often prefer to feed on
the barren ground of the world around us.
You know, they sometimes find sheep, here after
the shepherd's gone to all the hard work
of preparing a nice green pasture for them,
lush, green grass, two feet high, where they
can eat and be content and lay down,
they'll find some sheep having wandered off to
the side, and he leaves that pasture, and
there he goes off into the rocky, barren
area, and he's just sort of grazing around
over there, trying to find something to chew
on, when he's got this lush pasture right
next to him.
We see that in the church, don't we?
We see that in our own lives.
Here, with the provision of God so full
and so rich for us, how many times,
because of our own perverseness, does the Lord
come looking for us and find us off
on some barren stretch of land, near the
point of dehydration, hungry, faint, and getting sick
spiritually, when all the while, right next to
us, was all the food and nurturing we
could ever ask for?
It's because we give place to our sinful
nature.
Our own perverseness leads us to wander off
to feed on barren stretches of land.
And you know what?
The devil, as we study in the Roman
6, is always there shouting across the road,
saying, come over here and graze.
Notice this lush, it's like a storefront, you
know?
Lush, green, pasture-age.
You'll come in here, you'll be so delighted,
you'll have so much fun, you'll get so
fat, this will make you so happy, and
you go rushing.
It's like those Fuji film signs, you know,
as the girl splashes through the boat, and
it's a picture.
It's kind of like that.
It looks so real.
Then you go running over there, only to
smash through the picture, and on the other
side there's nothing.
And you find yourself deceived, hungry, thirsty.
Our Good Shepherd leads us into the green
pastures and makes us to lie down, well
-fed, well-cared for, and content.
Don't be deceived.
I know a man who's a Christian, and
one time he was there right under the
will of God, right under the Shepherd's care,
and he began to get it in his
head that he needed to go to one
of these barren lots with one of these
pictures on the front.
And so he left the will of God,
and there as he was traveling away, much
like Jonah, fleeing from the presence of God,
he found himself in a field.
This is so hysterical.
And there in the field he had to
spend the night, because as he was hitchhiking,
no one would pick him up.
You know how that goes when you're out
of the will of God and nothing goes
right?
Especially if you're hitchhiking.
Nobody will pick you up.
And so not having planned this getaway from
the presence of the Lord, much like Jonah,
he found himself on the highway with no
one there to pick him up, no sleeping
bag, no food, no provision, and so all
he had was a little bag of clothes.
And there he was by a cornfield.
And so he goes out and he lays
the clothes around.
By the way, it's really cold.
He's up in the high desert, you see.
And he lays his clothes around and takes
a few of these raw ears of corn,
and he begins to nibble on them as
he's shivering there, trying to cover himself with
these clothes.
And you know what the Spirit of the
Lord said to him?
And he did fain fill his belly with
the husks.
Remember that scripture from the prodigal son?
Came back and he found himself eating pig
food, when there just a little way off
was his father, his house, the robe, the
ring, the party, all that the father wanted
to give him.
You see, because of our own perverseness and
thinking that we know a way that's better
than God's way, we find ourselves shivering in
a field with no one to pick us
up hitchhiking, fain filling our bellies with these
husks of raw corn.
Right?
He wants his sheep to be fat and
spiritually happy.
Are you that way tonight?
Are you filled with the peace of God?
Are you filled with the contentment of God?
Can you say tonight, praise God, I love
hearing things like this, because only today I
was laying down in the fields of grain,
content, filled with the provision from the Master.
If you can't, we're going to give you
an opportunity as we take communion, just to
have a still time before the Lord, to
come back under the guiding and the provision
of the Good Shepherd.
I like what Ralph Robinson said in 1656.
He said, Here are many pastures, and every
pasture rich, so that it can never be
eaten bare.
Here are many streams, and every stream so
deep and wide that it can never be
drawn dry.
And the sheep have been eating in these
pastures ever since Christ had a church on
earth, and yet they are as full of
tender grass as ever.
I love that.
Richard Baker said, Not only has he green
pastures to lead us into, which shows his
ability, but he leads me into them which
shows his goodness.
Isn't that wonderful?
Isn't it good to know that you don't
have to be the pilot of your life?
Isn't it good to know that you don't
have to be sitting in the driver's seat
all the time?
Haven't you found out that when you take
the wheel, you end up crashing every time?
Let your life come under the care of
God.
Let him lead you and guide you.
Not only does he have the green pasture,
his intention is to take you there, so
that you find yourself just overflowing.
I'm going to give you one more quote,
and then I want to give you a
couple of practical things to go away with,
to think about.
F.
P.
Meyer said, talking about this and obedience to
the shepherd's lead, The tenderest shepherd cannot bring
the flock to rest unless they follow him.
The test of following the shepherd's lead is
most important.
It is by no means a mystery that
we lose our rest and our fulfillment when
we run hither and thither following the devices
and the desires of our own hearts.
All too often we substitute our plans for
his plans.
We do not look up often enough to
see which way he is going and what
he would have us to do.
And so our rest is broken, and we
find ourselves restless, pacing, cranky, ill-fed, with
some bit of straw in our mouths as
we've wandered off God's green pastures to follow
the devices of our own life.
Now, the first practical suggestion I would give
you tonight is make sure you are under
the care of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
If you're not there tonight, take this time
of coming to the Lord's table, of partaking
of the body and the blood of the
Lord, and remembering his sacrifice for you as
your Good Shepherd.
Take this time to turn back to his
guidance, back to his way.
You know, there is one way they do
make sheep to lay down when they keep
wandering off.
Do you know what that is?
You ever seen those staffs that the shepherds
have, the shepherd's staff?
You ever wonder why it's got that little
curve on the end?
It's because now and then there's a sheep
who tends to, no matter how lush the
grass, how great the provision of the shepherd,
how wonderful everybody is and how happy they
are, they'll wander off.
So time and again he finds them.
Finally he has to come to that sheep
and take his staff, though he doesn't want
to, and take that little curved part and
on one of his legs break it.
Then he carries the sheep back to the
lush green grass, and when that sheep's got
no alternative but to sit there and feed
on the goodness of his shepherd.
And as he is fed by the hand
of his master, he grows to trust him
there in his broken state.
Sometimes God has to break us so we'll
stop wandering off.
And while we're there broken before him, he's
hand feeding us because he wants to show
us how much he loves us and how
much he cares for us.
Maybe you're in that place tonight.
Maybe you're broken right now before the Lord.
Maybe you've wandered so many times that he
finally had to come after you and pop
one of those little legs of yours pick
you up and carry you back to the
pasture.
If that's where you are tonight, thank God.
And as we approach the Lord's table, come
with thanksgiving that the Lord loves you enough
to break your little legs that keep carrying
you away from him.
I thank God for that.
It's a wonder I can still walk with
all the broken legs I've had over the
years.
This is the end of side two and
the end of this cassette.